Structure of rail

ABSTRACT

A rail includes a frame and a resilient web. The frame includes a plurality of frame bars. The resilient web surrounds and is mounted to the frame bars to form a resilient central web of stretchability among the frame bars. As such, a safe and comfortable rail is constructed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a structure of rails, and in particularto a rail that is formed with a design of a frame and a resilient web toprovide a barrier for protection purposes thereby ensuring a safe andcomfortable environment particularly for families with babies,nurseries, sick beds, and the likes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A sickbed or a baby playpen is often provided with one or more rails toprevent the patient or baby from falling, in order to ensure protectionof the patient and the baby. Conventionally, the rail is made by weavingwires or threads to form a net-like article. Others use a piece ofcotton cloth or even curtain surrounding around a frame to form a webserving as a protection barrier. However, the material of web, the webmay be air impermeable for a cloth web, or for a net-like web, the webmay cause potential risk if the curiosity of a baby about the wire makesthe baby play with the wires. In addition, the wires used to make theweb may cause other potential risks, such as stumbling. Further, forrails comprising cotton cloth or curtain, other risk may exist when therail falls or gets loosened by a baby's attempt to climb up the cottoncloth or curtain. The conventional web of the rail lacks extensibilityand stretchability, which makes the rail incapable to resist against anexternal force applied thereto, and may thus trap a user in a dangerouscondition.

On the other hand, a barrier or rail is also required for the door of ababy room to prevent the baby from crawling out of the baby room. Thus,a door rail is often mounted in a door frame to protect the baby. Thedoor rail, however, is made of similar materials discussed above, namelywires, cotton cloth, and curtain. Similar potential risks exist when thebaby's curiosity drives the baby to climb the rail, pull or play thewires. Further, stumbling may accidentally happen to general users. Inaddition, falling or collapsing of the rail may happen when the babypulls the cloth or curtain web. Further, the conventional web of thedoor rail lacks extensibility and stretchability, which makes the railincapable to resist against an external force applied thereto, and maythus trap a user in a dangerous condition.

Such dangerous conditions may create potential risks to babies due tothe parent's carelessness and negligence, which makes the baby in thedangerous conditions. It is often read from newspaper reports thatparents' carelessness puts their baby in dangers or even causes thedeath of their baby. It is thus noted that all the parents shouldexercise care in avoiding such tragedies.

Thus, the present invention is aimed to provide a rail that is safe andcomfortable to prevent babies or children from being trapped in theabove discussed risks or dangers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a rail featuringsafety and variability, which is realized by a web made of resilientfabric to allow for adjustment of dimension to be fit for bed or doorframe of different sizes.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a railcomprising a frame comprised of a plurality of frame bars to which aresilient web of stretchability is attached for distributing around anexternal force when the web is subjected to the application of theexternal force, thereby enhancing overall practicability.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide a resilientweb, which comprises a resilient fabric made of resilient yarns andnylon yarns to feature four-direction stretchability with reduced riskof break of yarns, for combination with a rail to form a protectionstructure so as to enhance the practicability and convenience.

Yet a further objective of the present invention is to provide aresilient web that features excellent water absorbability and is easy todry for combining with a rail to form a safety barrier.

To realize the above objectives, in accordance with the presentinvention, a rail is provided, comprising a frame and a resilient web.The frame comprises a plurality of frame bars. The resilient websurrounds and is mounted to the frame bars to form a resilient centralweb of stretchability among the frame bars. As such, a safe andcomfortable rail is constructed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art byreading the following description of preferred embodiments thereof withreference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a rail constructed in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the rail of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a-perspective view of a first embodiment of the rail of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating an application of the rail ofthe first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the rail of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating an application of the rail ofthe second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to the drawings and in particular to FIGS. 1 and 2, arail constructed in accordance with the present invention comprises aframe 10 and a resilient web 20. The frame 10 comprises a plurality offrame bars 11 between adjacent ones of which a corner member 30 isarranged for connecting the frame bars 11 together. The resilient web 20surrounds the frame bars 11 to form a web portion among the frame bars11. Such a construction provides a safe and comfortable rail structurein accordance with the present invention.

The resilient web 20 is made of resilient yarns and nylon yarns, whichare woven together. In an example, the resilient yarns are singlefilament yarns, while the nylons yarns are composite yarns comprising aplurality of filaments entangled together. An example of the compositeyarns is made of 24 filaments entangled together. In an example, theratio between the resilient yarn and the nylon yarn is 15:85 with atolerance of ±2%. The diameter (denier) of the resilient yarn can be forexample 30, 40, 55, 77 or other suitable ones, while that of the nylonyarns can be for example 30, 40, 55, 70, 140, 210, 280, 560, 840 orother suitable ones. In an example, the resilient web 20 is formed by afabric that is made by warp knitting of the yarns, wherein the yarns aresubjected to lateral movement of performing the weaving, so that theresilient web formed of the fabric so made is of four-directionalstretchability and thus enhanced extensibility with reduced risk of yarnbreaking. Due to the nylon components of the resilient web 20, theresilient web 20 features enhanced water absorbability and is easy todry. Alternatively, the resilient web 20 can be made of a fabric that ismade by plain weaving in which warp knitting and weft knitting arealternately employed. Further alternately, the resilient web 20 can beformed in a net-like structure to ensure excellent air permeability.

Also referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, which shows a first embodiment of thepresent invention applicable to a rail of a bed or playpen forprotecting an aged person or a baby from falling, the rail of the firstembodiment comprises a frame 10 and a resilient web 20. The frame 10comprises a plurality of frame bars 11 between adjacent ones of which acorner member 30 is arranged for connecting the frame bars 11 together.At least one frame bar 11 of the frame 10 includes, at a middle sectionthereof, an extension device 40 for selectively extending/contractingthe frame 10. At joints of the lower one of the frame bars 11,transverse bars, also designated with reference numeral 11 forsimplicity, are attached. Each of the joints of the lower frame bar 11is provided with a collapse device 12, which comprises a connectionblock 121. The connection block 121 and an upright one of the frame bars11 positioned thereabove are operatively coupled to an operation ring122 and the frame bar 11, which is tubular, contains therein a spring111 or other resilient elements and a stop block 112 operatively coupledto the operation ring 122 whereby when the operation ring 122 is movedupwards and disengages from the connection block 121, the associatedtransverse bar 11 is allowed to fold. In this way, the corner members30, the frame bars 11, and the collapse devices 12 together construct athree-dimensional bed-side protection rail, as shown in FIG. 3, with theresilient web 20 surrounding the frame bars 11 to form a resilientcentral web of stretchability among the frame bars 11 of the frame 10;and the resilient web 20 features four-directional stretchability, whichgives the web enhanced extensibility with reduced risk of yarn breaking.Due to the component of nylon of the resilient web 20, the resilient web20 features excellent water absorbability and is easy to dry. Further,the web 20 can be constructed in the form of a net to ensure excellentair permeability. Further, the transverse bars 11 extending from thejointing corners of the lower frame bar 11 allows the rail to bepositioned and retained below a bed mattress 50, as shown in FIG. 4, toprovide a safe and comfortable bed-side rail.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a second embodiment of the rail structure inaccordance with the present invention, which is applicable to a doorframe rail to prevent a baby or a young child from leaving a room towhich the door frame is mounted. The door frame rail of the presentinvention comprises a frame 10 and a resilient web 20. The frame 10comprises a plurality of frame bars 11 between adjacent ones of which acorner member 30 is arranged for connecting the frame bars 11 together.One of two lateral-side frame bars 11 is provided, at opposite endsthereof, with retention devices 60 respectively, and the other one ofthe two lateral-side frame bars 11 is also provided with upper and lowerretention devices 60. The upper retention device 60 of the lateral-sideframe bar 11 is provided with an operation handle 61 for causing theretention device 60 to extend outward for tightly engaging an externalwall. The lower retention device 60 is provided with a slide block 62,which is operatively coupled to a spring 63 for causing sliding of theretention device 60 to engage the external wall. In this way, the cornermembers 30, the frame bars 11, and the retention devices 60 togetherconstruct a three-dimensional door-frame rail, as shown in FIG. 5, withthe resilient web 20 surrounding the frame bars 11 to form a resilientcentral web of stretchability among the frame bars 11 of the frame 10;and the resilient web 20 features four-directional stretchability, whichgives the web enhanced extensibility with reduced risk of yarn breaking.Due to the component of nylon of the resilient web 20, the resilient web20 features excellent water absorbability and is easy to dry. Further,the web 20 can be constructed in the form of a net to ensure excellentair permeability. Further, the retention devices 60 mounted to thelateral-side frame bars 11 of the frame 10 allow the rail to bepositioned and retained within a door frame 70, as shown in Figure, 6,to provide a safe and comfortable door-frame rail.

To summarize, the present invention possesses the following features:

(1) A resilient web is mounted among frame bars of a frame and theresilient web is of four-directional stretchability with reduced risk ofyarn breaking so that when subjected to the application of an externalforce, the resilient yarns that form the web functions to spread out andwidely distribute the force to thereby provide a barrier that is bothsafe and comfortable to the users.

(2) The frame has a lower frame bar having joints, to which transversebars are mounted for being positionable below a bed mattress to preventan aged person or a baby from falling off the bed mattress therebyproviding a safe and comfortable bed-side rail.

(3) Optionally, retention devices are operably mounted to lateral-sideframe bars to allow the rail to be positioned and retained in a doorframe that prevents a baby or a young child from unexpectedly leaving aroom to which the door frame is mounted thereby providing a safe andcomfortable door-frame rail.

(4) With the stretchability of the resilient web, the dimension of theframe is allowed to adjust for extension/contraction to be fit for theneeds of different applications thereby expanding the applicability ofthe rail of the present invention and thus ensuring convenience andimprovement.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to thepreferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in theart that a variety of modifications and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention which is intended tobe defined by the appended claims.

1. A rail comprising: a frame comprising a plurality of frame bars; anda resilient web surrounding and mounted to the frame bars to form aresilient central web of stretchability among the frame bars, whereby asafe and comfortable rail is constructed.
 2. The rail as claimed inclaim 1 further comprising a corner member arranged between adjacentframe bars.
 3. The rail as claimed in claim 1 further comprising anextension device arranged in a middle section of a frame bar of theframe for selectively extending/contracting the frame and wherein atransverse bar is mounted to a joint of a lower one of the frame bars ofthe frame by a collapse device, the collapse device comprising aconnection block, which, together with a frame bar positionedthereabove, is operatively coupled to an operation ring, the framepositioned thereabove containing therein a spring and a stop blockoperatively coupled to the operation ring so as to form athree-dimensional side-bed rail structure.
 4. The rail as claimed inclaim 2 further comprising an extension device arranged in a middlesection of a frame bar of the frame for selectivelyextending/contracting the frame and wherein a transverse bar is mountedto a joint of a lower one of the frame bars of the frame by a collapsedevice, the collapse device comprising a connection block, which,together with a frame bar positioned thereabove, is operatively coupledto an operation ring, the frame positioned thereabove containing thereina spring and a stop block operatively coupled to the operation ring soas to form a three-dimensional side-bed rail structure.
 5. The rail asclaimed in claim 1 further comprising retention devices provided atopposite ends of one lateral-side frame bar of the frames and upper andlower retention devices provided on an opposite lateral-side frame bar,the upper retention device comprising an operation handle for causingthe retention device to extend outward for tightly engaging an externalwall, the lower retention device comprising a slide block, which isoperatively coupled to a spring for causing sliding of the retentiondevice to engage the external wall, whereby a three-dimensionaldoor-frame rail structure is provided.
 6. The rail as claimed in claim 2further comprising retention devices provided at opposite ends of onelateral-side frame bar of the frames and upper and lower retentiondevices provided on an opposite lateral-side frame bar, the upperretention device comprising an operation handle for causing theretention device to extend outward for tightly engaging an externalwall, the lower retention device comprising a slide block, which isoperatively coupled to a spring for causing sliding of the retentiondevice to engage the external wall, whereby a three-dimensionaldoor-frame rail structure is provided.
 7. The rail as claimed in claim1, wherein the resilient web comprises a resilient fabric that is madeof resilient yarns and nylon yarns.
 8. The rail as claimed in claim 7,wherein the nylon yarn is formed by entangling a plurality of filaments.9. The rail as claimed in claim 7, wherein the resilient yarn and thenylon yarn that form the resilient web is of a ratio of 15:85 with atolerance of ±2%.
 10. The rail as claimed in claim 7, wherein theresilient yarn has a diameter selected from a group consisting of 30,40, 55, and 70 denier.
 11. The rail as claimed in claim 7, wherein thenylon yarn has a diameter selected from a group consisting of 30, 40,55, 77, 140, 210, 280, 560, and 840 denier.
 12. The rail as claimed inclaim 7, wherein the resilient fabric is made by warp knitting.
 13. Therail as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient web is made in theform of a net for air permeability.
 14. The rail as claimed in claim 7,wherein the resilient web is made in the form of a net for airpermeability.